Where do we find the truth amongst all the lies?

Establishment politicians are liars, mainstream media is full of liars, and social media is increasingly full of lies. So where do we find the truth?

Do I really need to justify the assertion that establishment politicians and mainstream media hacks are a bunch of liars?

Surely it’s so obvious to everyone at this point that it’s not strictly necessary, but I’ll provide examples anyway in case anyone is still in any doubt.

Boris Johnson won the 2019 election despite being the most notorious liar in British politics. He lied about 40 new hospitals; he lied about not creating a trade border across the Irish Sea; he lied that Corbyn wanted to disband the armed services; he even provoked laughter when he told a BBC audience that political liars should be punished for their lies.

Despite his inveterate lying, Johnson was supported by the majority of the political establishment and mainstream media, and his election win proved that absolutely brazen dishonesty was no barrier to success in British politics.

Keir Starmer followed Johnson’s lead by lying his way into the Labour leadership with a load of pledges, policies, and promises that he never intended to keep.

Starmer lies that he’s fixed Labour’s antisemitism issues despite conducting a systematic purge of left-wing Jews from the party; he lies that he never said that Israel has the right to collectively punish civilians by cutting off food, water, and energy; and he lies that his so-called "patriotic economy" is going to bring back prosperity for ordinary people when it’s actually just another toxic dose of the same ruinous austerity agenda that’s been trashing living standards for the last 14 years.

Rishi Sunak clearly has issues with the truth too. It’s astonishing that he was promoted to Prime Minister after being caught red handed pretending to be a full-time resident of the US while setting UK economic policy as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Since becoming Prime Minister Sunak’s lied about "stopping the boats"; he’s lied about getting back the £billions in Covid fraud that happened under his watch as Chancellor; and he’s lied about "getting NHS waiting lists down" when they’ve soared to the highest levels ever.

Instead of holding these political liars to account, Britain’s depraved political media class have wilfully amplified and obfuscated the lies of their favoured faction.

If you read the Telegraph, S*n, or Daily Mail you’d never know that Sunak’s and his Tory mob are such a pack of liars.

And if you uncritically read what the Guardian hacks tells you, you’d probably believe that Starmer actually did a great thing by lying to the Labour membership to steal the party leadership, or that he had to abandon all his promises because of circumstances, rather than because he never intended to actually keep them.

The latest lie going around is that Lindsay Hoyle had to sabotage the SNP’s Gaza ceasefire vote because MPs lives would be in danger if they were to vote on a motion that condemned Israeli collective punishment of civilians, rather than Starmer’s motion that didn’t.

There’s absolutely no evidence of any such absurdly unlikely threats, yet the story has become canon to such an extent that even Rishi Sunak cited it on the steps of 10 Downing Street in order to pour fuel on the Islamophobic fire that Lindsay Hoyle and Keir Starmer lit to distract attention away from their partisan parliamentary sabotage.

The absurd story that Lindsay Hoyle tore up parliamentary convention because of unspecified threats from unspecified people is now presented as unquestioned fact amongst the professional liars, just like the ridiculous story that the lifelong anti-racist Jeremy Corbyn is some deranged Jew-hating freak before it.

Somehow social media is even worse.

Not only is it infested with all the establishment lies, our social media feeds are increasingly plagued with fakery, scams, woo-peddlers, and conspiracy theory rubbish, often from accounts that we don’t even follow.

Remember how 88% of the political adverts the Tories paid Facebook to target at people in the 2019 general election were found to be lies?

Social media platforms like Facebook don’t just allow lies to flourish on their platforms, they make absolute fortunes actively helping the liars to spread their lies.

So if politics, the media, and social media are so infested with lies, where can we seek the truth?

It’s an extremely difficult question to answer.

There’s still a small minority of decent politicians and journalists among all the professional liars.

I’d be much more inclined to take the Green Party leader Zack Polanski, independent North East mayoral candidate Jamie Driscoll, or Manchester mayor Andy Burnham at their word than the vast majority of politicians.

I don’t necessarily agree with everything they say, but the journalism of Peter Oborne, Owen Jones, and George Monbiot is infinitely more believable than the output of the majority of journalists who seem to see it as their job to amplify establishment lies rather than call them out.

There are actually quite a lot of reliable sources on social media, but they’re increasingly difficult to find since platforms like Facebook and Xitter changed their engagement algorithms to deprioritise independent media accounts.

The best advice I can offer is to engage your critical faculties at all times.

Remember that we’re all wading through a sickening morass of propaganda, bullshit, and lies, and that the truth-tellers are increasingly difficult to find.

If you come across any politicians, political writers, or independent media sources that do seem to be doing their best to stick to the truth, treasure them. Don’t just passively follow them, because the social media algorithms simply can’t be trusted to actually show you their content. Actively seek them out and see what they’re saying.

Look out for red flags. If anyone tries to tell you that "wealth trickles down", presents austerity economics as a way to bring back prosperity, or compares government borrowing to credit card debt, they’re liars who are spreading economic illiteracy, either because they’re too dumb to realise they’re spreading economic lies, or because they’re cynically lying on purpose to dupe the gullible.

If anyone tries to portray overwhelmingly peaceful Palestine solidarity campaigners as a dangerous and violent mob, you know they’re a reality-reverser who can never be trusted on anything they say again.

If you see journalists and media outlets amplifying or obfuscating political lies rather than calling them out, remember it, and don’t trust them to frame the way you think in future.

There’s no perfect source that’s going to tell you the truth on every issue. But there are those that cite their evidence, try to do their best to be truthful, and apologise on the occasions they make factual errors rather than doubling-down or pretending it never happened.

They’re the ones to follow and support.

If you know of any politicians/sources you consider to be broadly honest and reliable, please share them in the comments below.